The Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association (MCPA) 2019 Legislative Agenda was developed over a period of several months with input from the state’s police chiefs, law enforcement leaders and stakeholder groups. Members of the organization’s Legislative Committee, which is made up of public safety professionals at the municipal and state levels from agencies large and small, urban and rural, discussed, vetted and prioritized the agenda. The MCPA Board of Directors approved the final agenda on November 15, 2018.

Legislation has also been introduced this session that would allow for the recreational use of cannabis or marijuana by adults older than 21. While not a part of the MCPA legislative agenda, this following documents offers an overview of the proposal and its current status. Click here for the Legislative Resource Sheet on this issue.

MCPA Legislative Agenda

Criminal Background Checks – The MCPA supports preventing individuals who are not legally able to purchase a gun from doing so without background checks at gun shows, online or in private transactions.

Criminal Gang Investigative Data System – The MCPA supports amending MN Statute 299C.091 to clarify when a legally identified gang member, who is incarcerated, is removed from the Gang Investigative Data system. Currently, all legally identified gang members are purged from the data system three years after the last record of a conviction or adjudication or stayed adjudication of the individual. Proposed language would be: Unless the individual whom the data pertains to is sentenced to or adjudicated to an adult prison or juvenile placement and the prison or juvenile placement continues to document on-going gang criteria behavior during the placement the three-year conviction period should begin once released.

Gun Violence Protective Orders (GVPOS) – The MCPA supports allowing law enforcement, qualified health care practitioners, family members and intimate partners who believe an individual’s dangerous behavior has a substantial likelihood to lead to violence to request an order from a civil court authorizing law enforcement to temporarily remove any guns in the individual's possession and to prohibit new gun purchases for the duration of the order.

Continued Investments for Mandated law enforcement training – The MCPA supports continuing the POST Board training reimbursement allocation to local agencies, which began in 2018, into fiscal year 2022-2023 through the Peace Officer Training Fund for mandated training in the areas of recognizing and valuing diversity and cultural differences, conflict management and mediation, crisis intervention and mental Illness crises.

K-12 Threat Assessments – The MCPA supports legislation requiring school districts to establish a team of subject matter experts to examine and address school safety issues and specific threats to the students, staff and community. This legislation would move our state beyond physical school safety measures, such as infrastructure improvement grants, passed by the Legislature in 2018.

Protecting all sworn officers under MS 176.011- The MCPA supports legislation to clarify that all sworn officers have the same occupational hazard protections. Current law excludes sworn officers employed by certain state agencies.

Law Enforcement Integrity Act - The MCPA supports allowing for a Minnesota Licensed Peace Officer to be terminated from public employment without opportunity to challenge the remedy of termination should the basis for termination be willful or intentional dishonesty, deception, or similar unethical or illegal conduct that is deemed sufficient to imperil their credibility in court testimony. The MCPA does not support limiting an officer’s due process right to arbitration.

Update of MN Government Data Practices Act –The MCPA fully supports the importance of the current Minnesota Government Data Practices Act for accountability and transparency purposes. However, the MCPA supports legislation to update the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act to comprehensively address technological changes in the type of sensitive data collected since the Act was first enacted in 1979.